Both patients and patient service providers benefit from products that provide features that increase therapeutic effectiveness, provide additional benefits, provide greater patient comfort and/or reduce patient cost. Part of the patient care services provided by patient service providers includes the administering of certain therapies while a patient is in bed. Such therapies include those that are directly related to the damage caused to the skin of a patient due to long periods of time spent in bed. For example, moving the patients, while in bed, can help prevent, as well as cure, bed sores (decubitus ulcers). In addition, reducing the pressure that the bed exerts on the patient's skin can also help prevent, or cure, bed sores. This can be achieved by providing an inflatable mattress where the weight of a patient can be distributed over a wider area and therefore the pressure on the patient's skin can be greatly reduced, as compared with the pressures exerted by conventional mattresses. The reduced pressure allows greater blood supply to the patient's skin and thus helps to avoid capillary occlusion and the potentially resulting bed sores. Pressures below 32 mmHg have been shown to reduce the occurrence of bed sores. Further, even greater pressure relief may be achieved where the mattress contains multiple inflatable cells and where the pressure in each cell, or group of cells, can be independently controlled.
Additional therapies that such providers provide to patients while the patients are in bed, include, for example, those therapies related to treating respiratory complications such as pulmonary therapy, alternating therapy, pulsation therapy, low air loss therapy, static pressure therapy or the like. Such therapies cause the movement of the patients while in bed for the purpose of loosening up fluids in the patient's lungs. Here, the weight of the patient is shifted to help loosen up such fluids.
Currently, mattresses containing inflatable cells are available which allow for the controlled inflation and deflation of selected cells for the purpose of assisting patient service providers in shifting the weight of the patient. In one example, a group of right side sub-cell(s) and left side sub-cell(s) are inflated or deflated together to cause the reduction in pressure in the entire left hand side of the bed or the right hand side of the bed, respectively. Where one side of the bed remains fully, or near fully inflated, and the other side is deflated, all or partially, a relatively steep drop off, or uneven slope, is experienced between the two sides making for a less than ideal sloping surface. As designed, internal walls are used inside the inflatable cell to segregate the sub-cells from one another.
In another example, multiple inflatable cells are lined up in a series across the width of the bed and are capable of being individually inflated or deflated. Each cell of the mattress is rectangular, and as such, contain six substantially rectangular planar sides including: a top side, a bottom side, a near vertical side, a far vertical side, a left vertical side and a right vertical side. Within the cell is located four sub-cells or compartments, each being separated from an adjacent sub-cell by an internal rectangular wall. A total of three internal rectangular walls are located inside the cell. On the far outside edges of the cells are located vertical end sub-cells that act as side barriers to prevent the patient from rolling off the mattress. In the middle of the bed, and taking up the width of the bed less the vertical end sub-cells, are upper and lower sub-cells separated by a diagonal internal wall. Here, each vertical end sub-cell is in fluid communication with one of the two middle sub-cells. As designed, nine walls are required, both internal and external, to construct this example of a cell. Along with the multiple internal and external walls, is included the inherent manufacturing, design, testing and shipping costs involved with the production and distribution of the mattress.